DUTCH, the cutting-edge European fashion magazine, is coming to America.

Shortly before jetting to Italy for his wedding to jewelry designer Kimberlin Brown, Bob Guccione Jr. told Media Ink he is planning to launch an American edition of Dutch.

He’ll be working closely with fashion photographer Michel Comte – who is a silent partner in the European version. The American version will be called Dutch USA. “We plan to start as a quarterly in 2003 and then go to 10 or 12 issues in the second year,” said Guccione. The magazine was founded by its editor-in-chief, Sandor Lubbe in the Netherlands, with editorial offices in Paris.

Guccione hired Comte to revamp the photo and design look at his men’s magazine Gear as the creative director.

Asked about the reports of disgruntled freelancers who say they have not been paid by Gear, Guccione insisted, “We pay our writers on time.”

He said any complaints to the contrary are probably isolated instances.

He said he figures it will cost “several million” to launch an American version of Dutch.

Gear has circulation of 517,008, but Guccione expects Dutch, an oversized glossy, to keep its circulation “around a couple of hundred thousand” in the U.S.

On the matrimonial front, Guccione was originally slated to tie the knot with his fiancé in September. His bachelor party went off as planned on Sept. 10. The couple had originally planned to fly to Italy on Sept. 12 for a wedding later in the month, but the World Trade Center attacks caused them to postpone until June.

Guccione is staying in the Tuscany home of Silvano Machetto, owner of Da Silvano’s, the Downtown restaurant that is a haunt to supermodels such as Sophie Dahl, Helena Christiansen and Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter. (We imagine Guccione Jr. dines there from time to time as well.)

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Don’t look for a classic Anglo-Irish feud to erupt between Tina Brown and Time magazine Managing Editor Jim Kelly. Brown says she was quite dismayed by a report in this week’s New York magazine quoting an anonymous “friend” who said Tina wants the top job at Time held by Kelly.

“Whoever the anonymous tipper is from New York magazine who claims I want to edit Time magazine is hallucinating,” said Brown in an e-mail to Kelly yesterday.

Kelly in the New York item was quoted as saying, “Who wouldn’t want to edit Time?” He also said she’d have to join the line – “or in her case, the queue.”

Kelly said he received a very gracious e-mail from Brown yesterday morning disclaiming any designs on his head.

“Now, I feel a little used,” he said. “New York was trying to stir the media pot, and I allowed my hand to be placed on the ladle. I certainly didn’t know she denied it,” said Kelly. Tina may not get the job, but she will get a free lunch out of the rhubarb. “At some point this month, we’re going to have lunch,” said Kelly.

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“Ghosts of Manila” author Mark Kram, who chronicled Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in his last book, is going to tackle Michael Tyson in his next work.

The veteran boxing writer, through agent Chris Calhoun, has just signed a deal estimated to be around $150,000 with HarperCollins to delve into the heart and soul of Tyson. The book, which is untitled as of yet, is expected to hit in the fall of 2003, according to HarperCollins Executive Editor David Hirshey. “This will be neither an apologia nor an opportunity to further demonize Tyson,” says Hirshey. HarperCollins is owned by News Corporation, which also owns The Post.

Regardless of the outcome of the upcoming title fight with Lennox Lewis, nobody is expecting the onetime champ Tyson and former felon to go gently into the night.

Said Calhoun, “Tyson hasn’t held the title for seven years and he’s still the biggest draw there is,” said Calhoun. “He’s one of the great psychological mysteries in all of sports.”